We can be pretty cynical about the kinds of technical arrogance we see in the computer world. But, in this case, Microsoft got it right in a big way at their Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D. C.

So, let me ask you – when was the last time the Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft went ape about your company? And, when did it happen in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center? Yeah, happens every day, huh?

What was Kevin Turner so excited about that he closed his keynote speech with a video and salute to this particular company?

It’s Never 2 Late – Never!

He was excited enough about the potential of a Microsoft partner company called It’s Never 2 Late. He was excited about Jack York’s vision of changing the lives of older adults.

You see, as long as Sheryl and I have known Jack (gosh, over 10 years now) he’s had a single-minded drive to help senior citizens connect, enhance and empower their lives by connecting to the computer world.

Jack would never say it’s been easy. In fact, if most of us went up against the odds he’s encountered, we’d have thrown in the towel long ago.

Not Jack.

“I just know this is a good thing to do. It really does change lives and you can just see it when it works. We just need a little more technology juice behind us to make it work.”

Um, so, do you think Microsoft might just have the juice?!

Take a look at the video above. If you want to skip right to the place where Mr. Turner introduces the video about It’s Never 2 Late, just skip to the 1 hour and 39 minute mark.

With Your Head In the Cloud

The Microsoft Partner Conference was often about something called “Cloud Computing.” But, Kevin Turner ended his speech, in front of over ten thousand of their most important partners, reminding all of us that technology just has its head in the clouds if it’s not about truly serving people.

As one of the seniors, Milton Greidinger, says in the video:

“It’s like a godsend. That’s a good word, godsend.”

And, that’s a good job, Kevin. And that’s a godsend, Jack.

The press is oh so fond of focusing on the numbers and percentages of unemployment – and this repetition of gruesome statistics can demoralize even the most dedicated job searcher.

The deflating result is that we begin to think, “How will I ever get the kind of job that will fulfill me?”

The Opposite Problem

Consider this. There are tons of unfilled jobs in this country. The challenge is to put the right people, with the right skills, into those jobs.

Sounds easy, right? And, in this age of computer databases and 1/10th-of-a-second Google searches, what could possibly be the problem? Obviously, technology is the answer, right?

“Putting Folks to Work”

Well, maybe not. Say hello to Michelle Diaz. Her job is, as she herself describes it, “putting folks to work.” She doesn’t work for the government. She’s doesn’t work for a non-profit. She works for a company that actually makes money putting YOU in the right job.

Michelle is the Regional Vice President for Spherion Staffing Services. She covers four states and any number of local offices that generate 75 million real live American job-placement dollars.

Motivational Job Hunting

The way Spherion makes its money (and keeps its investors happy – look for SFN on the New York Stock Exchange), is to help employers match the right people to the the right job openings. This matching process, it turns out, is only partly about skills.

When we talked to Michelle, she told us:

“We can interview for skills, but the right match is mostly about getting to the bottom of the question of motivation.” 

And, guess what, it turns out that computers just aren’t all that good at plumbing your true motivations. It still takes people like Michelle, and the folks who work for her, to do that.

Don’t Beg Uncle Harry

So, if you are looking for a job, before fixing your résumé, before buying a new suit and even before calling up Uncle Harry at the factory, you need to get your head on straight.

What you need to know is that there ARE jobs and that companies ARE looking for you. You just need to find the right kind of agents who will not only match your skills, but also get to the bottom of your motivations.

That’s what we liked about Spherion. They “put folks to work.” And that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Editors Note: As always on this blog, we do not accept referral or affiliate fees from any of the companies or resources we write about.

The thing is, he didn’t do it on purpose – he got it from Facebook. In fact, he got it from one of his other Facebook friends who he knew would never send him anything nasty either.

A Lot More Dangerous Than You Think

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all under constant attack, not just from spammers, but from smart, seedy, and even violent criminals.

While you might think this sort of thing is just a pain in the rear end, it’s not. It’s a real threat to your, your family and your business.

The USA Today article pictured above tells the story of Alice and her Facebook buddy:

“With a click of her mouse, Alice let the attackers usurp control of her Facebook account and company laptop. Later, they used Alice’s company logon to slip deep inside the financial firm’s network, where they roamed for weeks. They had managed to grab control of two servers, and were probing deeper, when they were detected.”

You’d Be Fooled Too

We’re all pretty savvy now when it comes to email spam. We know our bank is not really asking us to verify our account and we know SusieQue is not really hot for our body.

But, on Facebook, it’s our trusted friends who send these messages. In my case, because Tim has a band I just figured his link would connect me to a video of one of his songs, or maybe an upcoming concert. Wrong!

When I clicked the link, my computer went nuts and warned me that  cyber-zomboid bots from evil lands were trying to take it over. I still don’t know how badly it’s been infected (read the USA Today article pictured above and it will scare the pants off you).

The Trust Issue

Tim, of course, is mortified. But, it’s more than that. As Gene Leganza said in our recent post, Twitter Spam – Your Friends are Innocent:

“What really bugs me about it is that it made me an unwitting agent of spam. It impacted my followers’ trust in me.”

For Tim, trust is his band’s most precious asset. Just think about who follows his Facebook Fan Page:

“The thing of it is, Michael, many of my Facebook  friends are important music business contacts, and that business is built on trust. Anything that damages it could endanger my livelihood.”

Get a Clue, Facebook

This trust issue is why we are so critical of Facebook. They are dealing with this explosion of spam, crime and personal assaults on their site by stonewalling.

They simply ask us to trust them. We don’t, and you shouldn’t. It’s not enough for a Facebook spokesperson to say:

“We are constantly working to improve complex systems that quickly detect and block suspicious activity…”

We’d never stand for that kind of namby-pamby response from a politician after a terrorist attack. We’d demand swift and specific action that would protect us.

Facebook doesn’t seem engaged or concerned. They never send warnings and they don’t connect or respond to their customers in any meaningful way. This is a social network, isn’t it?!!

And, worst of all, sites like these are being given a free-pass from the hoards of social media gurus and pitchmen who act exclusively as cheerleaders. Almost no one holds up a hand and says “wait a minute.”

You better believe that Tim Champlin now says “Wait a minute.” You might want to, too.

We’ve written a lot about Timothy Bishop and the Ellensburg, Washington Downtown Association, and how they’ve been fighting the good fight to revitalize their shopping district. The most recent was “Associations that Truly Associate,” about how they use MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to get the message out.

Dark Clouds on the Horizon

Well, now Ellensburg (and Kitsap and Gig Harbor and Port Townsend and tons of other small communities in Washington state) are all facing a huge challenge. They are facing a complete cutoff of their funding.

It’s sort of predictable. Times being what they are, there really is a big crunch when it comes to how states will spend the money they don’t have (just ask California).

But small communities, cities and ‘burbs of Washington are fighting back by tweeting, Facebooking, and MySpacing in order to reach the folks who hold the purse strings – the state legislature. And, it seems to be working.

They found the support of two state Representatives, Dean Takko and Bill Hinkle (one Democrat and one Republican), to sponsor a bill to save Main Street programs. Just shows you what those folks can do when they work together.

The result was a 91-7 vote in favor of the bill in the House. Now, though, it heads on to the Senate – and that’s a tougher sell.

Gonna’ Bet Against Them?!!

Where does your money go when it’s spent on buying up car companies and propping up the big banks? I know, sometimes it seems to go to bigger and bigger bonuses for the even bigger doofuses who created the mess in the first place. And, you might not be wrong.

But, guess what? The money spent on small communities and their bedrock businesses pays you back many times over – creating 11,810 jobs and 3,721 new or expanded businesses in Washington State alone. Not bad! Timothy Bishop tells us that every dollar spent in downtown renovation multiplies around 100 times in private investment.

Which is why you’ll find Timothy working the streets, the back rooms in Olympia and typing away on his social media pages – carrying the message. There are good ways for the legislature to spend your money – and this is one of them.

By the way, that article we mentioned at the top of this blog post? It said:

“Grassroots efforts to save the Washington State Main Street Program are generating bipartisan support among legislators during the 2010 legislative session.”

Nice job, Timothy, and all the other folks who are rallying around investing your money – instead of spending it.

Recently Facebook asked us (actually they told us) to change our privacy settings, or else. It was an “Important Message” that read something like this:

“We’re making you change your privacy settings. And, since we know that 99% percent of you are too busy to doodle around with our impossibly complicated and arcane instructions, we’re going to suggest some to you. These will end up risking your bank account, expose you to viruses and endanger your personal safety, but what the heck.”

The problem is that, as many people have pointed out, Facebook’s suggested “privacy” settings would open-up your most private information, allow the juice-will-save-your life folks to accost you and expose your kids to muggers and rapists.

No big deal. Heck, what really got to me was the way they did it. They forced all of us to change our settings at that very moment. Not even banks do that!

That’s right. Here’s the screen – and good luck to you if you’d like an answer to the question, “Well, Ok Facebook, what were my old privacy settings?” Forget it – there was no way to check. You were locked out of your FB account until you filled out their form.

Let’s just take that first one, the “About me” section. Here’s what Facebook suggests for your “About me” profile – make it accessible to everyone.

Go to your Facebook profile right now and see if you can find “About me.” Do it. Good freaking luck.

I looked for 20 minutes and decided that the time I waste deciphering social networking sites would be better spent watching paint dry.

Maybe I’m missing something somewhere, but that’s why I’m ticked off. Oh, and that little bit about your privacy and safety being in jeopardy. That too.

Now, off to see if I can find someone, anyone, at Facebook who cares.

Let’s take a recent example of some Colorado business news that might have caught your attention. The Castle Rock (Colorado) Economic Development Council just announced that MyWedding.com, a Seattle and Portland based business, will locate its corporate headquarters in their fair city.

Pretty cool news if you live in Colorado, operate a wedding oriented business, or even if you’re just looking for some positive news about the economy.

And, let’s say you’d like to see if Twitter could help you network with some of the folks related to this business story. Perhaps you’re a job hunter, a wedding vendor, or, heck, simply wanna’-be-journalists like us.

Search Twitter Like a Pro

By now, if you read this blog (Just the Guy We Need, Going Next Door for a Drink), you know you have to start your search, not on Twitter, but at their sister-search site, Search.Twitter.com. And, you likely know that you should search for:

mywedding.com colorado

That way, you’ll find anyone who has tweeted a message that includes both the words, “mywedding.com” and “colorado.”

But, here’s the problem. If you do this search, you’ll quickly see that the Twitter River is now a polluted stream, indeed. Many of the people who tweeted or re-tweeted this story are either wannabes, fruitcakes or auto-tweeters. Yes, it’s true, they now offer automatic re-tweeting programs. Ugh.

So, Look Elsewhere

The amazing thing is, you’ll find better connections by simply targeting your search terms more specifically to something like:

mywedding.com “castle rock”

Isn’t that amazing? By adding more specific terms, your results turn up no pollution and offer you five potentially cool people, companies or organizations:

Design Works – a floral supply company, specializing in weddings.

Mike Reid – a designer at the Colorado Springs Business Journal

Christian Eppers – an economic gardening expert in Highlands Ranch

Nicole McGee – of the very intriguing Colorado Stem Network

The Metro Denver Economic Development Commission

Twitter Really Can Handle That

Finally, isn’t it remarkable that while Twitter experts abound, almost none of them teach you even a smidgeon of proper etiquette?

When you refer to someone in a Twitter message, it’s best to refer to them by their Twitter handle. That provides a link and it alerts them to the fact that they were mentioned (which gives them a chance to thank you back).

In the case of MyWedding.com, their Twitter handle is “@myweddingdotcom.”

So, try your search terms combined with their handle, instead of their company name. In this case:

@myweddingdotcom colorado

@myweddingdotcom “castle rock”

@myweddingdotcom jobs

The results will show fewer goofballs and more savvy and experienced Twitter users, like the Oxford and Curtis hotels in the example below. We’re thinking these hotels host a few weddings on occasion, huh?

Yes, it’s still possible to fish for important contacts in “Twitter River” with your ole search fishing pole. But, it does take a little more work. Give it a try with better bait and let us know what your next catch looks like.

As we said in our last post about shortened URL’s -”Twitter Spam: the Long and the Short.ly of It,” – that’s not the worst of it when it comes to your safety.

Nope, it’s your friends you have to watch out for. But, it’s not their fault at all. Take a look:

We’ve followed Gene Leganza (@gleganza) for some time now. He just happens to be a mucky-muck analyst over at Forrester Research – not exactly the type of guy you’d think would send you an unsolicited invitation to his Mafia Wars family.

But, as you can see from the screen shot above, he did send me just such a private “Direct Message” message, asking me to click and join.

Not a Good Idea to Click

Just one small point. Gene never sent the message. Some sort of auto-bot did. And, there are scads of other such messages, inspiring a torrent of complaints and anger on Twitter itself (just do a search for “twitter spam” on seach.twitter.com if you doubt us).

Here’s another example of the kind that may be filling your Twitter private messages. Again, looks can be deceiving:

The Worst Thing About It

Here’s what really hurts. What do the most of the folks conclude who get these types of private messages from their followers? Yup, they blame the messenger. That’s what Twitter expert Laura Fitton  thought, before she took a second look, (screen shot at the beginning of this article).

But, Gene never did send it. And, Kim never did send it. Gene doesn’t play Mafia Wars. Kim works for the Four Seasons, not some sort of online money making scheme. But, both links will infect your computer and start sending out similar messages to your followers, without your knowledge.

Gene and Kim (and thousands of others) have had to re-jigger their Twitter accounts and send out apologies to their followers. Gene says he took the time to connect to each one privately. He told us:

What really bugs me about it is that it made me an unwitting agent of spam. It impacted my followers’ trust in me.

Complicity and Duplicity

It’s clearly time for Twitter to get serious about these sorts of scams. Thankfully, more and more conscientious and brave folks are bringing up the topic. Michael Arrington’s series of articles about the complicity of the gaming industry and social media sites should make your hair stand on end.

And a simple search on any major search engine will return thousands of results for things like “twitter spam” and “mafia wars spam.” The same searches in the News sections of those search engines will give you the latest stories – and there are many.

The same searches in the “News” sections of those search engines will give you the latest stories – and there are many.

What’s to be Done?

Wish to heck we knew. But, it’s frightening. And, it’s keeping us from clicking on most anything anymore.

Do your own research. Write your own blog posts. Become part of the discussion. This sort of nonsense has the power to bring down not just Twitter, but our entire trust in the online world.

Those fake followers are almost more of a nuisance than anything, taking up your time as you evaluate whether they’re worth it.

Diving Off the Diving Board

While those idiots and swindlers are doing their best to ruin your Twitter experience, perhaps the bigger threat to you and your computer comes in the form of those shortened URL’s.

Think about it. Does it really make sense that the bad guys know how to send spam on email but don’t know how to send it out on Twitter? In fact, the URL shortening company Bit.ly flags 2 to 3 million untrustworthy messages of its own per week!

Clicking on one of these shortened links is like diving into a swimming pool without checking first to see if it has any water.

The Future Looks Dim

Twitter says that it’s going to start testing those shortened URL’s to make sure they are safe. If they do as good a job at that as they do at getting rid of pornographers, swindlers and multi-level marketers, things sure don’t look good for the home team.

Sure, there are technical additions available that offer some extent of protection. Firefox and other browsers offer add-on’s and plug-in’s that will give you a preview of the longer links. However, those don’t assure the link is not malicious.

One of the best overviews of this topic is from Brian Krebs’ Security Fix blog in the Washington Post, “Spammers, Virus Writers Abusing URL Shortening Services.”

What it comes down to is this – Twitter has the potential to be a true national resource, acting as an ingenious social meeting place and an invaluable public square.

But, the assault on it by the by the online version of drug dealers, pimps and criminals is simply not being taken seriously enough. Right now, as I write this, you can follow the carnage by doing your own search for “twitter spam” on search.twitter.com.

With Friends Like That

But, hang on to your hats, folks, because that’s not the worst of it. It’s actually your friends you need to watch out for on Twitter – not just the spammers and the URL sleaze balls.

More about that in our next post.

Who is Dominic? Is he one of your LinkedIn connections? Nope. In fact, Dominic has the sum total of four (yes, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4) connections. Poor souls.

But, even though he has few friends (no wonder), he has joined something like 40 LinkedIn Groups. And, yes, he happened to join one of the groups you belong to – which is how he got entrée to your inbox.

So, you say, no problem. There must be a privacy setting on LinkedIn that would keep Dominic out of your life. You know “privacy settings.” Those are the adjustments social networking sites don’t publicize at all and that you never have time to fiddle with even if you do discover them.

But, this is a problem. The only privacy setting that would keep Mr. Spam out of your inbox would also keep the legitimate members of that group from communicating with you.

There Goes the Neighborhood

And, that’s the problem. I do want to “Allow members of this group to send me messages via LinkedIn.” I just don’t want zeroes like this guy to have access to me.

In fact, I want LinkedIn to throw his sorry behind out the door – now. If they don’t, their once verdant social networking neighborhood will turn into a slum of social nitwits. And, that’s when we’ll all leave. I’m just leading the way, leaving now unless LinkedIn begins to eject Dominic Spam and his ilk swiftly and summarily.

Tell LinkedIn you feel the same way, or Dominic and his friends will soon be cramming your inbox with a ton of this kind of garbage, too.

Ian Percy happens to be a successful speaker, organizational psychologist, corporate consultant, art aficionado and even horse reining expert. Not satisfied with those successes, however, he’s started a new initiative that is being branded around the term “Infinite Possibilities.”

That brand will also include a web site for Infinite Possibilities Jewelry. The jewelry is simple, gorgeous and symbolic – “the real magic is in your limitless potential to make your dreams reality.”

Let’s leave the trademark questions to the professionals and instead search for those folks who are already using “infinite possibilities” in various ways. They just might become potential partners for Ian’s new initiatives.

The Singer and the Song

We’ll start with a search for the infinite possibilities that Google can find for “infinite possibilities.”

The top Google result goes to the lovely and talented Ms. Amel Larrieux. Her CD, “Infinite Possibilities,” even takes home the bacon for that term in Wikipedia!

We had not heard of Amel, but believe me, the folks on Twitter have. A search of search.Twitter.com for “Amel Larrieux” shows that people are Tweeting away about her lovely music virtually every hour – adding up to at least 15 or 20 Twitter messages per day, and almost all of them complimentary.

(By the way, if you want to listen to Ms. Larrieux just go to Rhapsody.com. You can listen to 25 songs for free, without signing up and without paying for a Rhapsody account. Or, log on to her MySpace page for a few samples).

The Adventurer

The second Google result for “infinite possibilities” is for a CD called “Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams.” Not music this time, but an audio book about connecting to your own possibilities. The author’s name is Mike Dooley, who is the curator of an amazing web site called Tut’s Adventurers Club.

Tut stands for “Totally Unique Thoughts” and the site is:

A philosophical club of like-minded thinkers who believe that life is the ultimate adventure… because thoughts become things, dreams come true, and all things remain forever possible!

We wondered if Mike’s site had much traffic, so we got out “The Baloney Detector” again (AKA Compete.com) and tested his site’s traffic. Turns out, his single site has more visitors than many much-ballyhooed national sites.

The Connector – Information Age Style

Now, we have no idea if either the singer or the adventurer would want to connect their infinite possibilities with Ian’s Infinite Possibilities Jewelry.

But, it is possible that they might want to partner in some way, participate in an affiliate program or become a reseller. He won’t know until he asks.

It’s up to Ian to reach out. Perhaps he could follow Amel Larrieux on Twitter @amellarrieux before he came right out and contacted her. Maybe he could contact Mike Dooley on Facebook. Or, he might just call or email both of them.

This kind of search is, however, a powerful example of something that we rarely think about. 99 times out of 100 we would turn over our trademark concerns to the professionals. They would then come back with a “yes” or a “no” to our brand name ideas.

Instead (or in addition), in today’s information economy, the information and networking explosions have created new opportunities there for the asking – possibly even in infinite ways, with endless possibilities.